“5 Types of Wealth”: Why are you richer than you think?
By Jonny Thomson | Published: 2025-02-04 18:11:00 | Source: Thinking – Big Think
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Earlier this year, I spoke with author, investor, and influencer Sahil Bloom about his new book, 5 types of wealth. This was back in the post-holiday haze — that time of year when most people return to work, gingerly open emails, and spend a good portion of the day chatting with colleagues over coffee.
Bloom is not. He started the year with a full run. He’s wrapping up the media tours for his new book with days packed with podcasts, interviews, and signing events. While Bloom obligatorily puffed out his cheeks socially, he wasn’t upset about all the busyness. This was not someone who was forced to do something or unhappy with the way he was spending his time. Everything Bloom does—including talking to me—is a deliberate, consciously chosen allotment of his time. It’s a decision about what he wants his life to be.
“The first section of my book is temporal wealth,” he says. “The reason that the first one is for a very specific purpose, is that time is what unlocks all the other things. When you have freedom, when you have the wealth of time—the ability to choose how you spend your time, who you spend it with, what you spend it on, and when you replace it with other things—that’s what then enables you to decide what areas you want to focus on or prioritize during that season of life.”
Types of wealth
The main premise of Bloom’s book is that if we want to be happy in life, we have to answer one question: What does wealth mean to me? What does success mean to me? As Bloom says:
“The whole spirit of the book is that you will never feel successful unless you create your own definition of success. And if you blindly follow the definition of wealth and success that the world has given you, you will be chasing whatever ‘more’ thing you’ve convinced yourself is the thing that will give you happiness. And that’s really what 5 types of wealth It is everything. It’s a book to help you redefine what a rich life looks like, and what success looks like for you, based on the pillars that truly contribute to a fulfilling and happy existence. This includes money, but is not defined only by money. It also includes these other things in your life.
There are three main arguments behind Bloom’s position. First, a happy and fulfilling life is about defining what “rich” means to each of us. Second, history and philosophy reveal, very broadly, five types of wealth – or five ways of defining wealth. Third, we cannot devote ourselves entirely to the five definitions of wealth. The absolute reality of our mortality means that we can only be “wealthy” in one way at a time. So, happiness requires us to first define what wealth means and then consciously devote our time to becoming that kind of wealthy individual.
Seasonality of life
Bloom’s book is not about extremism. It’s not about becoming a certain type of person. We don’t commit to “some kind of wealth” and then suddenly appear as an archetype. There is no “business person archetype,” “family person archetype,” or “athletic person archetype.” Instead, we should devote our time to the many and varied aspects of life. As philosophers have said for thousands of years, it’s about balance. It’s not one or the other. It is neither an increase nor a decrease; Not yin or yang. It’s a combination of everything. It’s spending time today on this and time tomorrow on that.
This last point led Bloom and I to discuss seasonality. How and where you spend your time—and what you define as a “rich” life—will never be the same throughout your entire existence. Just as there is no one way to define “wealth” for every living person, so there is no one way to define “wealth” in one lifetime.
“The concept of seasons is essential to the entire book because what you prioritize or focus on during any one season is going to change. So maybe I’m in my 20s and early 30s, and I’m in a foundation-building season, and I really want to lean into building financial wealth during that season. Well, time wealth allows you to invest most of your energy into financial wealth. Now, I might be in my 40s, and I have young kids, and I really want to prioritize relationships with my family. My partner is with my kids, so I’m really leaning toward social wealth.”
The philosophy of the seasons is an ancient philosophy, and poets, philosophers, and sages have written about it for thousands of years. But Bloom’s view takes on a new edge in modernity because so many of the painful comparisons we make are between different chapters of life. Many of the arguments and discussions we have with each other — and with ourselves — stem from different starting points. An older person might scold a young professional for working late, while someone who is too focused on their family might make fun of people who spend hours of their day exercising or training.
Given Bloom’s interpretation, this is as ironic as summer mocking winter, or the sun mocking the moon. Every person you meet will live in their own season. They have their own foundational “wealth” accounts. The trick in life is to find the season in which you feel at home and to appreciate the joy that comes with it. Fallen autumn leaves are no less beautiful than the first snowdrops in spring. One type of wealth is not greater than another.
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